Inside Mac Games has released a new review of the Annihilation & Escalation content pack for Aspyr Media's Call of Duty: Black Ops. The DLC includes 8 new multiplayer maps and 2 new zombie levels for fans of the first person shooter.

Here's an excerpt:

On the Zombie front, Call of the Dead features a rather entertaining introduction sequence in which George Romero is directing a zombie movie until a real zombie wanders in and bites him. Then he constantly stalks you in the map from round 1 as a menacing boss like character. He can be killed but it takes a lot of teamwork and powerful weapons. Even a stray bullet can tick him off and send him rampaging after you, so beware. He can be calmed down by going into freezing water in various parts of the map. Most of the map is a frozen location and a half sunken ship.

The Sims 3: Monte Vista from Electronic Arts is now available for purchase from Mac Game Store. The DLC for the popular life sim gives player the chance to enjoy scenic views, visit museums, stroll across the piazza, and learn the culinary arts on an authentic wood-fire oven.

Discover a landscape rich with charm and money, where villas featuring sweeping views dot the gently rolling hills. Explore the vibrant community by visiting renowned museums, taking a stroll across the piazza, or learning the culinary arts on an authentic wood-fire oven. At The Sims 3 Monte Vista you’ll gain the inspiration of a culture that has influenced generations. Will your Sims find the inspiration to fuel their culinary fires?

Features:

All-New Gameplay Object - The Wood Fire Oven: Expand your Sims' culinary world with new recipes! Make a variety of Breads, Calzones, Lasagnas and Pizzas!A Whole New World Awaits - Meet new Sims, explore new locations, and experience the gorgeous views of Monte Vista!Exclusive New Items - Customize your game with dozens of all-new exclusive objects and clothing that are only available in Monte Vista.Sims 2 Legacy Family – Meet the Monty Family from Veronaville! Before they started their dire feud with the Capps, the Monty family spent their time whiling away their days peacefully in Monte Vista.

Goblinworks recently reached its Kickstarter funding target for the upcoming fantasy MMO, Pathfinder Online. Based on the tabletop fantasy role playing game, Pathfinder Online is planned to include a variety of unique features. The developers recently announced that the game will also be available for Mac.

Pathfinder Online is a fantasy sandbox MMO by Goblinworks based on the Pathfinder tabletop game. It uses a unique process called "Crowdforging" to determine what features are implemented in the game, in what order.

Here is a brief list of some of the highlights of this game:

1. No Grinding- Pathfinder Online uses a skill training system like that of EVE Online. You train skills by choosing what skill you want to train and allowing the time required to elapse. You don't train any faster by farming mobs or spamming your abilities than you do exploring the world, role playing with your friends, or even being offline. You will need to complete certain achievements to complete a skill and open up new avenues of training, but time-based training means you always get full value from your purchased game time whether you're casual or 'hardcore', an adventurer or crafter, or one who enjoys a lot of roleplaying chat or one who spends much of their time in combat.

2. No Classes- Unlike other games that give you a narrow range of abilities as you train your class, in Pathfinder you gain levels in different Roles based off what you have trained.

3. Player Structures- Build your own homes, taverns, farms, and even cities! The Pathfinder Online world will be filled with places players can use to build and customize their own homes, businesses and communities.

4. Freedom of Allegiance- Unlike games that give you a few factions to pick from like Alliance vs. Horde, in Pathfinder Online you can join a vast array of organizations run by players, create your own organization, or even be a lone wolf! Fight for your friends, your ideals, power, profits, or personal freedom. The choice is yours. The alliances, the betrayals, crushing defeats and glorious victories are all real, meaningful, and player-driven.

5. More Than A Gankfest- Unlike other Open World PVP MMO's currently on the market, Pathfinder Online actively discourages meaningless PVP. A meaningful alignment system that actually offers mechanical advantages to lawful and good aligned organizations, and a functional bounty system that allows the player to choose which players and organizations can collect the bounties they set discourages random and meaningless killing. Beyond this, the admins are taking a hard stance against 'griefing', in which players specifically seek to ruin the experience of other players, often through using game mechanics in ways that weren't intended. Griefing in PFO can be a bannable offence.

6. Real Battles- Large scale combat won't be the total chaos most MMO players are used to. PFO will make use of a formation system that gives groups significant bonuses for fighting in formation and coordinating their ability usage.

7. Less Tedious Crafting- Crafting won't be done by sitting and watching your character create the same recipe over and over. First you build the structure you need for the kind of crafting you want to do, like a sawmill, bakery, or smithy. Then you fill out work orders that your NPC subordinates execute for you. Meanwhile, you can go do other things, or later in the game's development there may be activities you can do to help the process along. PFO will also launch with both traditional resource harvesting and camp-based harvesting.

8. More Meaningful PVE- NPCs aren't all just sitting there in groups which never move, never change in size, and respawn every few minutes. There will be random NPC infestations that escalate in severity if not dealt with. For instance, a goblin camp left undealt with may turn into a goblin tribe that begins attacking your harvesting camps. Leave dragons, vampires, or giants alone long enough and they may attack your town. This creates a need to work together to deal with these threats and generates demand for players who train abilities specialized for hunting NPC types like vampire hunters and dragon slayers.

9. All Players are Useful- This won't be like games where a new player has 49 health and a veteran has 49,000. The attacks from that new player won't automatically miss the veteran. A new player will be weaker, but still able to make a meaningful contribution to combat. As a sandbox where group sizes aren't limited, this means all players are useful, and don't have to segregate themselves by level.

10. Trade is Meaningful- In Pathfinder Online players must manually transport items to their intended destination. Most shops are player-run, and there will be goods more abundant in or even exclusive to certain regions. Merchants, traders, and even auctioneers are all viable professions.

Macworld UK has posted a new review of Feral Interactive's Batman: Arkham City Game of the Year Edition. Developed by Rocksteady Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for consoles and PC, Batman: Arkham City GOTY features all previously released downloadable content, including the Harley Quinn’s Revenge pack.

From the review:

At the start of the game, Bruce Wayne is kidnapped by the evil Hugo Strange and dragged into Arkham City. You then have to fight your way free of Strange’s henchmen and uncover the secret plan that he refers to as Protocol 10. Along the way you’ll encounter famous Bat-baddies such as The Penguin, Two-Face and, of course, the clown-prince of crime himself – The Joker – creepily voiced by the former Luke Skywalker, Mark Hamill.

The Riddler’s in there too, with a fiendish assortment of puzzles and other challenges that provide some extra fun alongside the main mission. This Mac version of the game is also good value for money, as it includes a number of add-on packs, such as Harley Quinn’s Revenge, which takes place after the events of the main games. There’s also a set of special missions that you can play as the slinky, whip-cracking Catwoman.